Forgotten Music Thursday: Poco - The Last Roundup (2004)

Starting today, on the fourth Thursday of every month a "forgotten" album or band will be featured.

Recorded at a live show for a tentative late 1977 early 1978 release, The Last Roundup was instead shelved upon the departure of all but two members of the band’s line-up. While the concert did find its way into the hands of collectors and bootleggers and floated through the bootleg circuit for nearly thirty years, it remained largely unheard outside a core of those die-hard Poco fans.

It’s unfortunate as this is one of the best live albums I’ve ever heard. It was one of Timothy B. Schmit’s final appearances with Poco before he departed to replace Randy Meisner in the Eagles (ironic considering he joined Poco to replace Meisner). This performance also features a guest appearance of then departed founding member, Richie Furay.

This live set opens with the autobiographical Livin’ In the Band followed by a country arrangement of the Steely Dan song Dallas before it shifts gears with the stirring J.J. Cale (Cale is better known for writing Cocaine and AfterMidnight both of which were made popular by Eric Clapton) ballad, Magnolia. Where Cocaine and After Midnight were upbeat and rollicking songs, Magnolia is a more melancholic piece with a pervasive longing that tugs at the heart strings.

Honky Tonk Downstairs is just a generally fun song with very country lyrics, extremely tight vocal harmonies, and a thoroughly enjoyable melody.

P.N.S. (When You Come Around) is a Paul Cotton penned piece that Cotton brought with him from his days with Kal David in Illinois Speed Press. The Poco arrangement is decidedly more country-tinged than the harder rock/blues tinged ISP version from the early 70s.

Sagebrush Serenade is an upbeat crowd pleaser, the audience can be heard clapping at times. As with most of the songs in this set, the vocal harmonies are very tight, arguably tighter than their contemporaries, the Eagles. But then again where the Eagles walked closer to the rock side of the country-rock tightrope, Poco was planted more firmly on the country side of that tightrope.

Indian Summer is another gentle ballad that gives off a similar vibe to America’s Ventura Highway From the opening lyrics: “There’s a fool moon in the sky, it’s got a hold on me, I’m hypnotized, like your love it’s getting stronger, just give my heart a little longer, Indian summer is on its way, it’s cool at night, and hot all day” the song draws in the listener. I can almost picture people sitting on blankets on the lawn, wearing sweatshirts or sweaters and singing along with the band.

Other stand out tracks include Starin’ At the Sky and the Timothy B. Schmit penned Keep On Tryin’ his first hit with Poco. The vocal harmonies are arguably the tightest of this whole live set making it one of the most enjoyable 2 minutes and 43 seconds of music on any album. The only flaw is the song’s brevity as it leaves the listener wanting more.

The Dance is a trilogy of songs from the Indian Summer album. Given the personnel changes in Poco over the years, I believe this is one of the only live performances of this excellent song, it’s certainly one of the best as well. The lyrics are enjoyable, and it can’t be stressed enough how tight the vocal harmonies are. The melody hooks into the listener and doesn’t let go for the nine plus minutes of the song.

Following the Indian Summer tour Timothy B. Schmit left to join the Eagles and most of the band opted to call it quits leaving Paul Cotton and Rusty Young to soldier on. Ironically Poco would go on to score one of their biggest hits in this era with Crazy Love off the Legend album (another fun bit of trivia, the artwork on Legend was designed by late Saturday Night Live alum, Phil Hartman, prior to his career as a comedian/actor). As such, The Last Roundup is a time capsule marking the end of an era for this often overlooked and very underrated band that has often gotten lost in the shadows of the considerably more famous band that spawned them, Buffalo Springfield, and the hugely popular band that poached two of their members (Randy Meisner and Timothy B. Schmit), The Eagles.

As far as live albums go, few match the energy and pure chemistry exhibited by Poco on this set. Everyone in the band was “on” for this performance, it was one of those perfect concerts where everything came together just right… and luckily for us, over 30 years later, it was recorded for posterity and luckily it finally saw release in 2004.

Related Links
Poco (official site)
Poco The Last Roundup (Wikipedia)
Poco (Wikipedia)

Chicago V (1972)

After a string of double-LP releases and the arguably over-ambitious quadruple-LP live album, Live at Carnegie Hall, Chicago released their first regular length album. What arguably sets V apart from many of Chicago’s subsequent albums, the band crams as much creativity and talent into this single-player as they had into Chicago III, which had its moments but also could have benefitted from a bit of editing.

The album opens with the Lamm penned A Hit by Varèse. An enjoyable musical excursion that shows a band firing on all cylinders musically and lyrically laments Lamm’s boredom with the music of the day and his thirst for something more adventurous… and that something more adventurous is exactly what the band delivers on this track.

The band changes gears slightly on All Is Well which features a sublime horn chart and a thoroughly enjoyable melody and some of Chicago’s tighter vocal harmonies in an era in which they were arguably known far more for their musicianship, musical adventurousness, and instrumental prowess than their vocal harmonizing capabilities.

Why Now That You’ve Gone was never released as a single is beyond me. It’s easily one of Chicago’s best album cuts ever, bar none. Starting with some solid and infectious drumming by Danny Seraphine, Robert Lamm’s organ and Terry Kath’s rhythm guitar follow shortly thereafter, followed by the horns, and Terry’s vocals. The rhythm grabs you by the short and curlies, the horns get a death grip on your soul, and Terry’s souful vocal guides you through this catchy musical journey. If this had been released as a single it would have been a nice counter balance to their later string of soft-rock saccharine-driven tight melodic late seventies and early eighties soft rock staples.

Lamm’s socially conscious Dialogue Pts. 1&2 follows. The song is a conversation between a socially conscious ideologue (sung by Terry Kath) and an out of touch student who is just going with the flow (sung by Peter Cetera). While the horns are present on Dialoge Pt. 1, it’s much more notable for the tight rhythmic chemistry between Kath, Cetera, and Seraphine and features some of Peter’s finest bass playing. In later years Peter of course became much more known for his vocals, but throughout Chicago and predominantly on this and songs like State of the Union, Peter’s melodic style and bass-playing chops are quite evident. Dialogue Pt. 2 is more of an instrumental showcase than vocal showcase but also features some tight vocal harmonies from both Terry and Peter.

The album does not let up on While the City Sleeps featuring Robert trading his lead vocals with a tight harmony vocal led by Peter Cetera. The song also features what might be an otherwise overlooked Terry Kath guitar solo with the horns offering a soft musical carpet to layer his guitar over. The juxtaposition of Terry’s raw guitar against the smooth horns draws greater attention to both the horn chart and to Terry’s solo. The only complaint one might have of this song is that the ending is somewhat abrupt and anti-climatic.

Saturday In the Park was the opener on side 2 of the LP. It’s an excellent opening track and on the CD release it feels somewhat lost in the middle, sandwiched between While the City Sleeps and State of the Union. It’s success as a single is a testament to its popularity. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable and un-offensive track about spending a Saturday in Central Park that happened to fall on the fourth of July (which would insinuate the song was written in 1970, the most recent Saturday to have fallen on the fourth of July at the time of the song’s release).

State of the Union is one of Lamm’s socio-political gems. Musically speaking it’s an excellent song, Peter shines both on vocals and on bass. The horn chart is one of the best on the album (although, in all fairness, I’d argue there’s not a weak horn chart on the album). Terry’s rhythm playing is also enjoyable but (at least on the Rhino re-release) has been pushed more to the back of the mix in favor of bringing Peter’s bass and the horns closer to the front of the mix and making them considerably more noticeable.

Goodbye is another example of a band firing on all cylinders and all the pieces coming into place just right. The song is a look back on the previous few years of the band’s existence and a farewell of sorts to Los Angeles (Chicago V was recorded largely in NY and the next several albums would be recorded at producer, James William Guercio’s Caribou Ranch in the Colorado Rockies). The song is good throughout but really hits its stride at about the 3:37 mark (“Feels so good to be soaring, ‘Cause LA was so boring, Goodbye”) and then again at about the 4:06 mark a musical reprise of sorts (“There must be room for growing, somewhere else, and I’m going, Goodbye”). Between this and the aforementioned A Hit by Varèse, there’s a definite vibe a band that’s creatively restless and hungering for a change of scenery both literal and figurative to re-fill their creative juices.

The LP closed with Alma Mater, a somewhat more elegiac and mournful look at the previous few years. The vocal harmonies are tighter on this song than perhaps any other. From start to finish Chicago V, in addition to being a creative triumph is possibly the band’s most consistently lyrically autobiographical album. Alma Mater is also a look to the future—“We must set new goals, we must not lose control of the possibility, of finding the discovery, that would let everybody see, that we were just meant to be”).

The 2002 Rhino re-release continues the musical journey with an instrumental version of A Song For Richard and His Friends, a song that had previously only appeared on Chicago Live @ Carnegie Hall release. It was and perhaps remains Lamm’s most outspoken middle finger at the establishment song ever. A song whose somewhat prophetic lyrics begged for Richard Nixon to quit… In 1971, over three years before he actually did. The instrumental version includes a heavily distorted Terry Kath guitar solo. Stripping away the lyrics the song does get a bit of new life as it allows the listener to focus more on the music and less on Lamm’s politics. The horns are slightly out of tune, on purpose (I’m guessing) as a reflection of the discord (or would it be dis-“chord”) felt at the time in which the song was written. While the instrumental does certainly have its moments, chances are it would largely be skipped over by the casual listener and only the more devoted of the fans would take the time to give it a fair listen. Trying to be objective, the inclusion on the re-release neither adds to nor subtracts from the album with its inclusion.

The re-release also features an early arrangement Mississippi Delta City Blues a song that the band had played in their early days on the Chicago club circuit before relocating to L.A. and would later appear with a somewhat different (and arguably better) arrangement on Chicago XI, Terry Kath’s final album with the band.

The last cookie that Rhino tossed the fans on the re-release was the single-edit of Dialogue Pts. 1 & 2. Its inclusion is somewhat unnecessary as a sizable chunk of the song was removed for the single edit (over two minutes).

Between 1969 and 1972, Chicago released 3 double LPs, a quadruple LP live album (Live at Carnegie Hall), a double LP live album (Live in Japan), and this album. In hindsight one might argue that the band essentially “blew their load” on these releases. And certainly an argument could have been made for them to have better paced themselves as subsequent albums displayed a noticeable drop in quality and a shift in direction from being musically adventurous to being more pop-friendly. With that in mind, Chicago V marks the end of an era. There would still be occasional flashes of the creativity and adventurousness displayed in this era, but as time progressed those flashes of creativity and adventurousness grew increasingly fewer and farther between.

Related Links

Now That You’ve Gone (Live)

Saturday In the Park (Live)

Dialogue Pts. 1 & 2 (Live)

Chicago V (Wikipedia)

Chicago V (AllMusic)

Chicago (official site)

Chicago (Wikipedia)

Chicago III

How many bands do you know of that have released three consecutive double albums within the space of two years? Between 1969 and 1971 Chicago released 3 double LP studio albums and a quadruple LP live album. That's the equivalent of 10 albums worth of material in less than 3 years! It's a staggering musical statement by any estimation.

And while later albums certainly displayed glimpses of the creativity and musical talent of this period in the band’s tenure, none of them quite matched the consistently high quality of the first three albums.

Chicago III starts with Sing a Mean Tune Kid, a musical tribute of sorts to those which came before them and paved their way. It features a blistering guitar solo by Terry Kath, not to mention it exhibits a strong musical chemistry between Kath’s guitar and the keyboard/organ playing of Robert Lamm.

As Sing a Mean Tune Kid fades out it’s replaced by Loneliness Is Just A Word, a song the band had been playing since their days paying their dues on the Chicago club scene prior to their move to Los Angeles. The Chicago III version is of course considerably more polished and well rounded than the earlier version, thanks largely to the superlative production of James William Guercio.

Perhaps what sets Chicago III apart from their debut or Chicago II are the occasional country-influenced flourishes on songs like What Else Can I Say or Flight 602, perhaps giving the clearest example of the direction Peter would inevitably steer his career following his departure from Chicago. Terry’s guitar also shines front and center a few tracks later on I Don’t Want Your Money.

On the remastered 2002 Rhino re-release, Peter Cetera’s bass playing is particularly audible (incidentally, Rhino did an excellent job on bringing Peter’s bass-playing closer to the front of the mix on all of their Chicago re-issues).

Much like on Chicago II which featured the multi-part It Better End Soon anti-Vietnam anthem and the Ballet For a Girl in Buchannon (the latter of which spawned two of Chicago’s more memorable hits, Make Me Smile and Colour My World), Chicago III features the multi-part Travel Suite, An Hour In the Shower, and Elegy. All three pieces have their moments, Travel Suite features a fast-paced Danny Seraphine drum solo, Motorboat to Mars, the aforementioned country-tinged Flight 602, the live staple Free, At the Sunrise would not have sounded out of place on a latter day Beatles album with the McCartney/Lennon-esque vocal chemistry of Robert Lamm and Peter Cetera being the hallmark of the piece. But perhaps the strongest part of the Travel Suite is the underrated instrumental gem, Happy Cause I’m Going Home which features some of Terry Kath’s better acoustic guitar playing marked a soft counterpoint to his heavier electric guitar work on other tracks and truly displayed his versatility. Add to that there’s enough cowbell to make even Christopher Walken happy. The band was truly exploring and utilizing the studio space with the cowbell. To this day Happy Cause I’m Going Home remains one of my favorite Chicago album cuts. The song starts with the trademark layered approach that had become a staple of many of Chicago’s earlier songs, Terry counting them in, starting with his acoustic guitar, followed shortly by Peter’s bass, and shortly after Peter comes in, Danny’s drums before the rest of the band joins the rhythm section. There’s a scat vocal throughout that dances around the instruments and is an instrument in and of itself. And despite not being as well known as his solos on Colour My World or Just You & Me, Happy Cause I’m Going Home has perhaps the best flute solo Walt Parazaider ever recorded (although his solo on the Live At Carnegie Hall version of It Better End Soon would also be in the running for that honor). His solo is syncopated with more cowbell, some solid drum fills by Danny Seraphine, and some of the most melodic bass playing that Peter ever laid down.

The band takes a brief break with Mother and Lowdown before launching into An Hour In the Shower. Both songs are enjoyable, Lowdown has some decent guitar work by Terry even if he didn’t personally care for the song, he still put his heart into it.

An Hour In the Shower is perhaps the most unusual song ever recorded by Chicago. Instrumentally it’s as good as anything else on III (or II or their debut for that matter), but paying attention to the lyrics one might be left scratching one’s head. The song is by and large an ode to a morning routine (“Now I usually have my breakfast which consists of tasty Spam, Yeah, I could eat it all day long, But I only love one brand, and I can’t find it way out here, So I’ll have to take a pass, settle for some hash, what a drag, you’re not here, Oh sweet sweet Spam”), masturbation (“Now I lay me down to sleep, and I dream of my treasure map, it shows me where my maypole’s buried at, and I dream of all the fun I have when my maypole comes out to play” and later “Just reach underneath your bed, and turn on your electric friend, yeah, and turn your thoughts to me, cause you know where I’ll be, and you can join me in my hour in the shower”), and environmentally unfriendly water consumption (Terry sings of both starting and ending his day with hour long showers—2 hours in the shower a day!)

Following the perpetually amusing Hour In the Shower the album takes a decidedly pretentious turn with Robert Lamm reciting the Kendrew Laschelles poem, When All the Laughter Dies in Sorrow which opens the third and final multiple part musical piece on the album. Once Upon a Time features another thoroughly enjoyable flute solo by Walt Parazaider before James Pankow offers an equally enjoyable trombone solo before both Walt and trumpeter Lee Loughnane come in. The horns eventually blend into a cacophony of noise that fades out as the sound of car horns fade in along with the sound of jackhammers and other unpleasant reminders of modern life. The car horns and jackhammers crescendo into a toilet flush and the piece ends with the instrumentals The Approaching Storm and Man vs. Man: The End.

While not as consistently strong as their debut nor as polished as Chicago II, Chicago III was then and remains today a thoroughly enjoyable album. It remains one of the most creative albums in their rather extensive catalogs and while, Elegy may have been a bit of a “miss” for me, credit has to be given for having the stones (of Sisyphus?) to try something so outside the norm. And, Elegy, to me, is the lone “miss” on an otherwise excellent album.

Related Links

Chicago Lowdown (1972 live video)

Chicago (official website)
Chicago III (Wikipedia)

Chicago III (allmusic.com)

Chicago (wikipedia)

Boston - Walk On (1994)

"But there's no Brad Delp!"

It's one of the biggest gripes I've heard about this album, and I heard it repeatedly. If it's any consolation Delp did rejoin the band for the subsequent tour to promote the album.

That being said, Delp or no Delp this is a thoroughly enjoyable album. While Fran Cosmo's voice isn't quite as distinct as Delp's he does have the range Delp had in his prime and he is equal to the task of the material on the album.

And in all fairness to Mr. Cosmo he and Delp both took turns singing lead on former Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau's 1980 solo album.

Given the strength of the material on Walk On, that I'd argue is possibly the best material Boston had recorded since Don't Look Back or possibly even their debut (if I were being particularly generous). Tight soaring vocal harmonies-- Check, trademark tight Tom Scholz "guitarmonies"-- Check, superior musicianship-- Check. I'd argue the timing of Walk On and the long delay (8 years) between albums likely contributed far more to its relative lack of success (compared to Boston's other albums. When you couple in that this album was released in the era of grunge, this album was far too polished to compete with the much rawer production that was coming from the likes of Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pearl Jam around that time.

The album starts with a bang on I Need Your Love and keeps up the pace on Surrender to Me before the 12+ minute Walk On medley begins. Perhaps my lone complaint about this album was that Walk On was broken up into 4 tracks on the CD. None of the 4 tracks can stand on their own given the flow of the medley, I'd rather Scholz had made Walk On a single 12+ minute track. He still could have listed the different parts on the CD sleeve or in the liner notes. On some CD players the transition from track to track is rather seamless, but on others there can be a slight "hiccup" between each track that is somewhat jarring in an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable piece.

Following Walk On is the unoffensive but comparatively weak, What's Your Name. In all fairness, even being the weakest song on the album, What's Your Name remains thoroughly enjoyable.

Magdalene, is a re-working of a song by Hybrid Ice, a band that found regional success in the early eighties in their native Pennsylvania. Having heard both Hybrid Ice's original version and Boston's version I've got to say that Scholz took a good song and made it great. The Hybrid Ice version is enjoyable enough, Scholz kept the choruses but changed the verses substantially and the harmony vocals by David Sikes and Tommy Funderburk are so tight they give me chills. To this day Magdalene remains my favorite song on this album. It just sounds as if everything fell into place. I'd even go so far as to say Magdalene blows their hit Amanda out of the water.

The album closes with the upbeat We Can Make It. It's an upbeat song about working together to change the world, it's the hints of a message that has crept increasingly more into Tom Scholz's lyrics in the years since.

If you've generally ignored this album due to the absence of Brad Delp, you're doing yourself a tremendous disservice. This album is superior, in every way, to 1986's Third Stage and is easily one of Boston's strongest albums-- Delp or no Delp.

Related Links
Walk On (wikipedia)
Walk On (AllMusicGuide)
Boston (official site)
Boston (wikipedia)
Tom Scholz (wikipedia)
Fran Cosmo (wikipedia)
Gary Pihl (wikipedia)
Tommy Funderburk (wikipedia)

Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Don't Know How to Party (1993)

Straddling the line between punk and ska, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones had a hard driving sound with a healthy dose of brass.

Part of the appeal was Dickie Barrett. He couldn't and can't really sing. That is to say he hits the notes but his voice is not one that anyone would describe as pleasant... any other voice wouldn't quite fit in the Bosstones. Barrett's vocals are as much a trademark of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones sound as their horns are.

After cutting their teeth on a couple of indie-releases, Devil's Night Out (1990) and More Noise and Other Disturbances (1992) the Mighty Mighty Bosstones finally found themselves signed to a major label (Polygram) and while Don't Know How to Party grew their audience and started to get them noticed it wasn't necessarily a breakout hit.

But at the same time the Bosstones were at the forefront of the brass-laden ska and new swing resurgences of the late nineties. The nice thing about the Mighty Mighty Bosstones-- their songs are fun party fare. They never take themselves too seriously. These are the theme songs emenating from fraternity houses of the mid-90s. There's a happy-go-lucky vibe to the music that captures the mood of the mid-90s... An anti-grunge if you will (the Bosstones often performed in loud plaid suits-- not exactly the uniform of the Nirvana generation).

That being said there's a screeching anger on some songs that would not have sounded out of place on a Nirvana or Pearl Jam album. But that anger is often tempered by following angry songs like A Man Without with lighter party fare like the infectious Holy Smoke.

Admittedly the Mighty Mighty Bosstones aren't for everyone, but if you're going to check them out, Don't Know How to Party is the best place to start. It's easily one of, if not THE strongest album the Bosstones ever released from the frenetic Our Only Weapon to the live staple from that era of the band Seven Thirty-Seven/Shoe Glue

Related Links
Mighty Mighty Bosstones (official site)
Mighty Mighty Bosstones (wikipedia)
Dicky Barrett (wikipedia)
Nate Albert (wikipedia)
Joe Gittleman (wikipedia)
Joe Sirois (wikipedia)
Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton (wikipedia)
Dennis Brockenborough (wikipedia)

Bill Champlin - No Place Left to Fall (2008)*

In his first solo release since 1996, Bill Champlin demonstrates he's still got "it." For those unfamiliar, Champlin is a grizzled veteran vocalist, organist, songwriter who cut his teeth with his namesake band, the Sons of Champlin in the late sixties and through the seventies before stringing together a couple of Grammys (in 1979 for co-writing the Earth Wind & Fire hit, After the Love Is Gone and in 1983 for George Benson's R&B hit Turn Your Love Around) and a twenty-eight year stint as one of Chicago's three primary lead vocalists.

Towards the end of his tenure in Chicago, Champlin found the time to move from southern California to Nashville and record No Place Left to Fall. Ever the consumate professional, there is a definite polished quality in his production. But, at the same time, No Place Left to Fall is a departure from his previous albums. The material is considerably "swampier" than what fans of Champlin are likely used to. The blue-eyed soul is still there, but where on his previous albums the organ was there, on No Place Left to Fall it's no longer merely "there," it's quite prominent. Bill's love for his B-3 is evident throughout.

Throughout the album, Champlin explores his influences, the soul and R&B influences are never far from the surface but he does inject hints of country (on Angelina) and the aforementioned tight production is a product of his 28 plus years in Chicago. Where he does Chicago one better is he knows when to stop polishing. Some of Chicago's more recent releases were produced to the point of sterility where no emotion was left in the songs. Champlin knows when to keep polishing and when to show restraint and allow a bit of grit to seep onto the album.

He even takes one of Chicago's biggest hits, Look Away, which he and Chicago took to number one all the way back in 1988 and rearranges it and sings it the way HE wants to, on his own terms. Where the Chicago version sounded forced, Champlin's acoustic arrangement sounds more soulful and Champlin is decidedly more comfortable in his own skin than he was when singing the Chicago version all those years ago (and for several years since, night after night, year after year on the road).

All in all this album is bittersweet. Chicago had Champlin's talents at their disposal for twenty-eight years. It's his solo material that really shines a light on how under-utilized Champlin was during his tenure in Chicago. Perhaps if they'd loosened the leash on Champlin, he could have restored some credibility to their music, credibility that started to slip away even before the untimely passing of Terry Kath in 1978. His membership in Chicago was a musical gift, and for 28 years, that gift was largely squandered and reduced to singing Terry Kath-karaoke.

If you think you know Champlin based on his contributions to Chicago, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. No Place Left to Fall blows away even his best contributions to his now former band and affirms its place as one of his best solo endeavours.

*released digitally and on CD in Europe and Japan in 2008. Not released on CD in the US until August 4, 2009

Related Links
No Place Left to Fall (allmusic.com)
Bill Champlin (official site)
Bill Champlin (wikipedia)

Esperanto - Rock Orchestra (1973)

Esperanto were a European progressive rock outfit of somewhat unusual origin. Belgian violinist Raymond Vincent, pianist and musicologist Bruno Libert, and a pair of Italo-Belgian brothers, bassist Gino Malisan and his brother drummer, Tony Malisan. The core of the band was Belgian but it was on a trip to England that the original Belgian unit found the remaining members that would give Esperanto their unique sound.

After experiencing success in his native Australia with the Twilights and later Axiom, Glenn Shorrock decided to travel to England in a bid for international success. He was struggling and finding little or no success in England. The Belgians got in touch with producer David Mackay who knew of Glenn Shorrock and bada-bing Esperanto had a lead vocalist. After hearing a trio of Cliff Richard's back-up singers, Joy Yates, Janice Slater, and Bridget Dudoit their sound was complete.

Esperanto had a sound that was uniquely theirs. With violinist Raymond Vincent there are hints of American prog-rockers, Kansas but Vincent's violin playing is in more of a classical European vein than that of Kansas.

Shorrock, Yates, Slater, and Dudoit gave a glimpse of what was to come later when Shorrock would join Mississippi with Graeham Goble and Beeb Birtles and morph into Little River Band. Their vocal harmonies are tight and contribute to the uniqueness of Esperanto's sound. Another preview of Little River Band would come in the form of Statue of Liberty which Glenn would re-record with LRB on their debut album. The Esperanto version comes across a bit more bombastic and over the top than the somewhat more stripped down LRB version that would be recorded three years later.

After an extensive tour the band retired to a castle in Wales to record their next album. Shorrock decided to take his leave and return to Australia forcing the band to find a new lead singer, Keith Christmas. They also started working with King Crimson lyricist, Peter Sinefeld as their producer.

But it's their 1973 debut that is particularly interesting given Glenn Shorrock's post-Esperanto career path. The album shows Shorrock in a decidedly different light than his material with Little River Band would later display and gives the listener a greater appreciation of Shorrock's vocal versatility.

The album, besides being an interesting rarity is a well-done and thoroughly enjoyable album. The material is predominantly strong. While perhaps not to the same level as other groups whose places in music history are a bit more assurred (Yes, ELP, King Crimson, etc.) Esperanto is still certainly worthy of a few listens.

Related Links
Esperanto (The Official Site)
Esperanto (wikipedia)
Glenn Shorrock (wikipedia)

Starcastle - Fountains of Light (1977)

Along with groups like Styx & Kansas, Starcastle was an American response to the British prog-rock of the sixties and seventies. Their sound and style is largely reminiscent (some would argue disparagingly that it was derivative) of Yes.

Listening to their first 3 albums (of which Fountains of Light is the 2nd) this comparison is not only understandable but fully warranted. In addition to the Roger Dean-esque cover artwork the synth heavy music is reminiscent of Tormato era Yes. Which makes Starcastle an even more interesting anomaly in that their first three albums pre-date Tormato. So somehow Starcastle managed to not only sound like a derivative of, but also a pre-cursor to Yes.

Terry Luttrell's (ex-REO Speedwagon) vocals are reminiscent of Jon Anderson, the tight vocal harmonies and even tighther rhythm section make for a thoroughly enjoyable sound. Unfortunately the synthesizer heavy stylings of computer programmer Herb Schildt have not aged well.

Dated synths aside, Fountains of Light is an delightful and very listenable album. Other than Fountains which opens the album, most of the songs range from just over three minutes to barely over six. Their brevity making them a bit more accessible than Yes's at times over-indulgent romps but at the same time this also contributes to the derogatory labeling of Starcastle as "Yes-lite."

Another interesting twist in Starcastle, their driving force and arguably their band leader, Gary Strater, was the bass player. There's a tightness, one might argue even a symbiosis between Strater's bass and the drumming of Stephen Tassler. It's these tight rhythms that were arguably better than that of Yes that set Starcastle apart and make them worthy of consideration in their own right, as opposed to being merely a poor man's Yes as the critics seemed to pan them as over the years.

Related Links
Starcastle (wikipedia)
Starcastle Fountains of Light (wikipedia)
Starcastle s/t debut (Review Revue)
Terry Luttrell (wikipedia)
Herb Schildt (wikipedia)